canton draft july 30.pages

8/20/2019 Canton DRAFT JULY 30.Pages

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DRAFT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN - CITY OF CANTON, OH

Prepared by czb and MIG

July 27, 2015

All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part with out theexpress written permission. Contact Charles Buki at [email protected] or Jeff Winston at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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• This is a draft document. As such it will undergo further revision.

It has been prepared through joint work performed by czbLLC of Alexandria, VA and MIG

of Boulder, CO working in partnership with the City if Canton, OH.

THIS IS A REVISED version of an earlier draft and reflects inputs from the community since

its release in June. This will undergo additional review by the project steering committeebefore submittal to the Planning Commission of the City of Canton, OH for its review and

comment.

Following Planning Commission review scheduled for late summer 2015, the draft will then

be considered for adoption by the Canton City Council.

• This draft is the result of nine months of work, community meetings, and dozens of work

sessions with various representatives of the community. It represents the best practices in

the United States today on the subject of planning and land use and economic

development in older, industrial American cities.

It incorporates best practices from the strongest markets as well, mainly the principle of

sending and receiving district designation used for density and view corridor management

in the context of private property rights and environmental stewardship aims.

• Comprehensive Plans are generally used to guide growth and development, and it is not

common practice to plan for the work of right-sizing (getting smaller smartly) a city that has

experienced population loss.

As the Steering Committee, the City Council, the Planning Commission, and the general

public examine this draft, feedback will be received and incorporated into subsequent

revisions during June and July 2015. All constructive comments and feedback are

welcome.




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Repositioning Canton




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Foreword

The City of Canton is at a crossroads.

Like so many American cities that came of age during the first half of the 20th century, the

Second World War also ushered into Canton the construction and development of factories, railyards, homes and community serving businesses, and the roads that connected them. AsCanton grew in prosperity and population, its footprint grew as well, both in size and density.The city expanded outward. And it also grew inward, with increasing densities of familiesserviced by alleys and courts between streets, avenues, and roads.

By 1950 Canton was the 8th largest city in Ohio. Today, Canton remains the 8th largest ofOhio’s 250 cities. But there are significant differences between then and now.

• An extra 3,500 housing units means that it is very hard for sellers to get the price they need.As a result, owners are less willing to invest in their homes while living in them, fearing they

will never get their money back down the road. This makes the market problem worse• Each week, there are now 5,000 fewer households going to the grocery, to the ice cream

shop, to the dry cleaner, and so forth. As grocers and druggists and others make lessmoney, their properties also become less valuable. In time, just as the city’s residentialneighborhoods began to empty out, so too did its shopping centers and commercialcorridors see marked increases in vacancy. Today, reduced spending translates into abouttwo million square feet of retail space that isn’t supported.

• Each week, there are now 5,000 fewer families using city playgrounds and recreationalspaces. This means that fewer parks could meet current needs, and the same is true forother kinds of infrastructure, such as sidewalks to water and sewer pipes, to street lampsand tree canopies and signage. Having “too much” of any of these each carries anexpense.

• Fewer families also need fewer roads. Yet at about 30 feet of road frontage per house,Canton has about 110 miles of roads that need to be maintained that, because of marketconditions, only to lead to empty structures or those with virtually no probability ofproductive near future use. And worse, because the 3,500 vacant houses are scatteredthroughout the city, road maintenance can’t be made more efficient.

• About 3,000 fewer kids in the schools at any moment in time means that, on any givenschool day, Canton needs about 100 fewer classrooms than it did in 1950, or roughly350,000 fewer square feet of combined classroom and other school space. Yet Canton

In 1950 Canton had Now Canton has

117,000 people 73,000 people

35,000 households 30,000 households

21,000 homeowners 16,000 homeowners

300 abandoned units (1% of all units)3,500 abandoned units (10% of all

units)

Homes and jobs were balanced and

occupied

3,500 excess homes for which there is

no demand




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quite recently built new schools, which, while sensible in some respects, makes the work of“right-sizing” the city that much more difficult.

• All of this vacancy and excess capacity has a big impact on crime. Vacancy leads todisorder, and disorder is the primary precursor for crime. Crime aside, disorder is also thesingle most important factor in discouraging people from investing (time, energy, money) intheir homes and businesses from investing in their buildings. So wherever vacancy isprolonged, disinvestment only gets worse. Public safety concerns mount, and thenpressure increases to react and respond to demands for costly police and related services.

Moreover, and this is a big part of the problem, just outside of city limits are other jurisdictionswith far lower tax rates and homes with higher principal value.

Canton has lost population directly proportional to its suburban neighbors’ growth.Development throughout Stark County - principally at the edges - was (and in many casesremains) attractive, and many Canton families left for suburbs. As more and more Cantonfamilies chose to buy in the suburbs, this led to a growing capacity in the suburbs to supporttheir own restaurants and shops.

This great shift occurred between 1950 and 1970, and by the time Belden Village Mall openedin 1970, Canton had already been losing population for 20 years.

Of course, this was occurring in every industrial city in the United States; Canton was notalone. And, it was also a trend that was not especially easy to see. From 1950 to 1960,Canton lost roughly 60 people each week, a number hardly noticeable. Over the course of the1960s, Canton was just losing 70 people per week. But in the 1970s, this jumped toapproximately 300 people leaving Canton each week – a number equal to the size of McKinley

Population Trends, 1900 to 2010

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Canton Rest of MSA




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High School’s graduating class. The 1980s were challenging, too – the equivalent of TimkenHigh School’s graduating class (roughly 200 people) were leaving weekly.

Perhaps because the city’s population losses started slowly, many remained optimistic. Inhindsight, it is regrettable that Canton tore down its historic City Hall, but at the time it was anact of tremendous hopefulness. The national economy was strong, as was Ohio’s. Cantonknew it had to compete in the region, and with a sense of confidence it built a new City Hall tocomplement its Memorial Civic Center. Canton made a strong effort to hold steady against anational tide of suburbanization.

But that national tide simply proved too strong. In the 1950s, 117,000 Canton residentsgenerated enough tax revenue to pay for the schools and parks and roads and water treatmentsystems needed by 117,000 people. Today, Canton has the same infrastructure to take careof, but has 40% fewer people to help pay for it. So a very real challenge the community facesin 2015 is how to take care of the city when it has about half as much revenue as it used tohave to do the job.

What matters most today, knowing that the community is faced with a very difficult dilemma(one that is dire and getting worse), is whether it is ready to take decisive action, whether thecommunity is ready to be realistic as well as aspirational, and whether as a community –residents and business owners a like – it is willing to dig deep.

The community knows that for the city to become healthy, it must to be able to generaterevenues sufficient to cover expenses. The community’s (public) revenue comes from incometax—from people who both live and work here. When the city loses people or businesses, itloses income to support its infrastructure and public services.

The community knows that it needs healthy businesses. Today Canton is a proud working classcity of just under 30,000 households collectively earning about $1B a year. But of that the

community spends only about $350M locally, and even less of that is actually spent in the cityitself—most of the community’s disposable income is going to the suburbs. Every dollarspent in Stark County but not in the City of Canton becomes a dollar that makes surroundingsuburban jurisdictions stronger, and because the region is not growing, each of those dollars(and the individual decisions behind them) further weakens Canton.

The community knows that for Canton to compete with the suburbs and other nearby cities inthe struggle to keep and attract residents, it needs its neighborhood housing conditions andquality of life to improve. The community knows that Canton has to become safer, and moreserviceable. Its roads need to be improved and the downtown has to be revitalized.

But stakeholders also know that each and every one of these takes money. The community is

highly taxed as it is. Many are struggling just to make ends meet.

So how can Canton become healthy? How can Canton turn excess industrial and commercialspace back into productive use? How can Canton get its housing supply more in balance withits population? How can Canton possibly do this with the little it has on hand?

This is the community’s plan.




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First, since Canton has more space, buildings, and demands for services than it can reallyafford, it must reduce its obligations as best it can.

Second, to remain competitive (attractive to businesses and households) Canton can’t reduceits obligations haphazardly, or equally everywhere. It must make sure it preserves the city’s keyassets, and improves the quality of life. This means it must to concentrate efforts and carefullyprioritize where investments are made in its roads, parks, police, sidewalks, everything.

Finally, Canton can’t just balance its books in ways that reposition the city to succeed if, by themanner in which it does that, it turns its back on its most vulnerable citizens. Canton is acommunity. Circumstances require Canton to be smart. But it also has to be fair.

To do this, the plan starts by preserving strengths – assets that are marketable, have realeconomic value, and which Canton cannot afford to lose. Canton’s big assets are itsdowntown, Aultman Hospital and Mercy Hospital, Timken Steel, and the new Pro Football Hallof Fame Village. These strengths - alone and in tandem - constitute the geographic, economic,and cultural foundation for Canton going forward.

Canton has many strengths beyond these, but these are the ones it must to focus on withdetermination and energy right now. Over time it will grow them individually and be intentionalabout connecting them. And as it connects them physically, their growing strengths willmultiply more widely throughout Canton.

While Canton is building upon these strengths - growing them and connecting them - it will alsobe encouraging reinvestment in and around smaller community assets. It will be seedingfuture potential gains in areas where community strengths already exist and where futureopportunity may occur. Across the city where it makes sense to do so, Canton will befacilitating reinvestment in creative ways. And in those parts of the city without such pockets ofeasily predictable near future strength, where the market no longer functions in a healthy way

and where recovery is beyond the city’s limited means, it will be encouraging investmentsdesigned to enhance neighborhood safety and quality of life. Such investments will help holdthese places steady until the city is able to more substantially intervene.

This plan does not place blame. The community is clearly past that.

Could Canton have made better decisions in prior years? Probably. But that is beside thepoint and aware that these problems won’t fix themselves, and that the historical approach tothem - to diffuse impact by failing to focus limited resources, and by not digging deeplyenough - plainly hasn’t worked.By design, this plan is as apolitical as possible. It is decidedlynot organized around Ward politics. This plan is a city wide plan.

It pays no special attention to any ward, and, in fact, purposefully avoids adopting either a“spread the wealth” or “worst-first” strategy. Such thinking has kept Canton from rebounding,would constitute business as usual, and is not found in this plan. Instead, this plan is an effortto allocate resources where spending them makes the most sense for the greater good of thewhole city.

And this plan has been crafted by a group of dedicated citizens who have spent many monthstrying to come to terms with the realities Canton now faces.




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Most importantly, this plan is not just a plan. It is more a guide for action – for how the city canrespond to long-standing challenges in a way that is strategic and equitable.




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Executive Summary

The City of Canton has a long and important history.

Its contributions to America are significant and in many respects greater than those of most

any other similarly-sized city. Try to think of another medium-size city that has given America aPresident (William McKinley), a member of a state supreme court (Minnesota) who is also amember of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Alan Page). Canton has given the nation arguablythe greatest catcher in Yankee history (Thurman Munson), one of the country’s greatest R&Bgroups (The O’Jays), Boz Scaggs, and Jack Parr. Canton is the rare medium-size city with aprofound influence on the everyday lives of Americans, what with Timken’s tapered rollerbearings, Spangler’s electric vacuum cleaner, and Belden’s bricks.

More than distant or even more recent history, though, Canton is having the beginnings of arenaissance.

If Canton becomes painstaking in its redevelopment, residents and business stakeholders alike

will be amazed before being half way through. The city will know a new energy and a newenthusiasm. The community will neither regret nor shut the door on the past, and will onceagain intuitively deal with the complexities of America’s changing national economy.

Are these extravagant promises? We think not.

The struggles that all industrial communities wrestled with since the 1960s - sometimes quickly,sometimes slowly - mean that cities able to adapt have given themselves completely to astrikingly simple program: they reinvest their time and energy and money in themselves,continually.

The stories of cities cross America disclose what the industrial landscape used to be like, whathappened, and what they are like now. Canton’s reemergent strength is no accident: manyhave worked very hard to steer the city through hard times. The seeds of those efforts are nowfirmly rooted.

- The Pro Football Hall of Fame is set to become one the nation’s great destinations, bringingfamilies from across the country to Canton, visitors who will come not just to recognizeathletic accomplishment on the football field, but excellence in management and businessand other related fields.

- For the last decade, major efforts have taken place Downtown, and now there is a foundationfor the next level of success. From the Onesta Hotel to the Canton Brewing Company to

ArtsinStark, Downtown Canton is on the map and moving.

- There are more than 200 hospitals in Ohio, and with Aultman ranked #17 and Mercy #29,Canton is one of the best health care centers in the state.

- Timken Steel’s $200M Jumbo Bloom Vertical Caster is the only one of its kind in the US andone of just a handful worldwide. At 270 feet tall, the state of the art is Canton .




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The job now is to build on Canton’s combination of history and emergent economic and civicstrength.

- That means that the work that’s gone into rebuilding Downtown has to continue; indeed thepace and level of investment Downtown has to become even more robust. Today’smarketplace wants authenticity and Downtown Canton has unique attributes that other partsof the region simply can’t offer: arts, culture, architecture, music, food, and eclecticbusinesses. It has to make sense for entrepreneurs to open more restaurants Downtown, sotax structure and permitting have to be favorable for that. And anyone opening a restaurantDowntown needs to know that they will have customers, so Downtown has to be safe andclean and attractive. The Downtown Master Plan needs to be fully funded and fullyimplemented. Housing Downtown needs investors, and those who want to live Downtownneed more than just restaurants; they need dry cleaners and grocers. So City tax and otherpolicies have to be aimed to incentivize these investments as well.

- It means that residential life in the city’s neighborhoods must offer more than great potentialvalue, as they do now, but become vibrant.

- It means that residential life in relation to the city’s parks must become even stronger.Canton’s recent votes in favor of greater park resources illustrate the significant degreethat the community already endorses the connection between residential life and the city’sparks. From Grant Park (Chicago) to the Commons (Boston) to Golden Gate (SanFrancisco), American’s largest cities are able to compete in part because of theirextensive amenities. But what really helps hold so many urban neighborhoods togetherare parks at a neighborhood scale like Baltimore’s Patterson Park. McKinley Memorial andStadium Park - the city’s crown jewels - are on the cusp of becoming two of the finesturban parks in Ohio and among the best in the Midwest.

- It means that the city’s historic residential architecture must be leveraged, for it is inCanton’s dynamic residential life that the city’s neighborhoods can become some of thehighest value and most enriching places in the region to raise a family.

- It means that the housing must become affordable and accessible on a citywide basis.

To accomplish these and other aims, the community will have to continue to come together.

America has undergone significant and convulsive economic change the last several decades,as Canton residents know all too well.

The shift from heavy industry to manufacturing to light industry to service delivery has had aprofound impact on all aspects of American life. And for communities like Canton - initially ahistorical incubator of industrial invention and subsequently a leader in industrial fabricationand distribution - these shifts require all kinds of adaptation. Labor has changed, and so havewage rates. Buildings that made sense in 1910 made less sense in 1960, and those thatworked well in 1960 don’t necessarily work well today. The location and amount of housingand commercial space also has undergone a shift in terms of relevance, and so adapting tonew residential and retail and office space requirements is important. And of course




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connecting everything is every bit the challenge today that it was a century ago. Today’s citiesneed thriving businesses to stay competitive, vibrant downtowns, and exciting neighborhoodlife. The cities today that are doing well have vibrant public markets, are beautiful, andconstantly reinvest in themselves.

The transformations that Canton must now make are those that are both time sensitive andimportant, and, as such, are opportunities the community must make, and must make atsignificant scale.

The economic strength of the Akron area and Stake and Summit Counties is such that growtharound the Akron-Canton Airport will soon make it even harder for the City of Canton tocompete. It is more important than ever for Canton’s Downtown to solidify itself as theeconomic center of the region. Right now, more than 9,000 people work in Downtown Canton.But in a digitized world where location matters less every day, and where every job can berelocated at a moment’s notice, Downtown Canton’s supply of office space must be leveragedto connect to the city’s medical expertise and to the Hall of Fame Village and to the Oil andGas Industry, and done so in connected, intentional ways.

As Akron and Cleveland have upped their game, with new housing and creative use of landbanking and other tools to stabilize large areas of fallow industrial property and excesshousing, Canton must do the same, and do even better. As Youngstown has stepped forwardto engage the community in collectively determining how to make decisions in theneighborhoods when it comes to vacant lots, Canton must do the same, and do even better.

The single greatest lesson to emerge from the half century era of de-industrialization is thatcities must be able to compete - for strong families…for young entrepreneurs…for businesses -and cannot rest on their laurels. As such, the work of catching up and then keeping up is reallyan exciting opportunity, given the talent and assets that Canton has at its disposal to leverageand work with. It is the opportunity to reposition Canton to again become a leading choice in

Ohio for business and a community of choice in the region for families.

Turning these transformative requirements into action is what the new Comprehensive Plan isdesigned to help with.

In reality, the Comprehensive Plan is more a Strategic Revitalization Plan than a formal planningdocument strictly concerned with land use and zoning, though it includes a focus on those andrelated design and planning matters.

Being a strategic document, its main focus is engineering the city’s transition to vibrancy thenext ten years. First by building on the city’s most marketable strengths, then by workingcreatively in the city’s neighborhoods to beautify them and reposition them and develop

resident leadership, and - along the way - intentionally building an infrastructure of people andorganizations excited about and able to execute the plan.

More specifically, the strategy is centered around a robust level of investment in the city’s keyassets and in the areas immediately around them. The plan focuses attention - dollars andpolicies and energy - around Aultman Hospital, in and around Downtown, and along the FultonRoad Corridor between Downtown and the new Hall of Fame Village. By ensuring that thecity’s main economic engines - its hospitals, Timken Steel, the Hall of Fame Village, and others




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- are connected to a growing downtown, well maintained parks, new infrastructure, thrivingresidential neighborhoods, and beautified parcels throughout - Canton will have many of thebuilding blocks for future vibrancy. It won’t be inexpensive. It also won’t be enough.

To put Canton on the right path, buildings and parks and bike lanes, while good, are not goingto be sufficient. In point of fact, property alone never is.

Canton’s real potential rests not with the city’s architecture - no matter how historic, nor with itsbusiness acumen - no matter how sharp. Nor does it rest with the redevelopment at the Hall ofFame and similar important efforts.

The real potential exists within the community of residents and business stakeholders who callCanton home, who want Canton to thrive, and who are willing to make the kinds of decisionsneeded to ensure a plan - strategic, comprehensive, or otherwise - actually gets implemented.

The Canton City Council showed courage and conviction when it started this process morethan two years ago and when, in April 2014, it approved the funds for this strategic plan. Most

cities plan only when a third party like the federal government or a private foundation pays for itor mandates it. The Canton City Council decided it was necessary to have a strategy toaddress the challenges that the city - like all industrial cities in the midwest today - now faces.The community - as it did with its Parks Levy - made a decision to invest in itself, a majordeparture from so many years when the reverse was more the norm. This was a real stepforward.

And now the city has a strategy. A plan for reinvesting in itself.

For citizens to take a role in leading Canton. For the city’s potential as a transformed place ofexcellence to emerge, based on years of hard work. Just as Timken Steel’s Vertical Caster isan example of reinvesting at the level needed to stay competitive, or Aultman’s investments in

Coronary Artery Bypass Graft surgery expertise is an example of what it takes to be regionallycompetitive, the community of residents, businesses stakeholders and others must now takethis plan and implement it.

czb and MIG




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Table of Contents

Users GuidePlanning PrinciplesGuiding ValuesLeadershipImplementation

Framework

Repositioning StrategyCore Targeted Investment Areas

! Aultman! HOFV! Mercy/Fulton!

Shorb! Downtown

Areas That Need to be Repurposed or Converted! Flood Plain and Other Property to Natural Corridors! Vacant Land and Tax Delinquent Property to Natural Corridors! Vacant Land and Distressed Property to Cleaned and Green Lots

Neighborhood Areas

Notes

Applying the Plan




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User’s Guide(Why plan, what the plan for Canton needs to accomplish, and how to do it)

At the beginning of the process to create this plan, work sessions were held with the CityCouncil, Planning Commission, and city staff experts in the areas of transportation,

engineering, zoning, public safety, education, parks, housing, and infrastructure. During thesesessions, the following question was asked: “what are the three key questions this plan, whencomplete, must answer?” The most prevalent responses are shown here:

Input from City Council, Planning Commission, and senior staff at the city illustrate that thecommunity understands the nature of problems Canton is facing and has preliminary intuitionabout the nature of the solutions. City Council was very clear that it was seeking a planspecifically focused on implementation, and one that would place higher priority on feasibleand meaningful near-term actions than on pie-in-the-sky visions that look good on paper but

which would prove impossible to accomplish. Though essential, input from City Council,Planning Commission, and senior staff at the city, cannot paint a complete picture. Yet for aplan to be grounded, the aims and concerns of residents and business stakeholders need tobe incorporated into strategy. Nine public meetings throughout Canton were held at thebeginning of this process to elicit input from the community. And a representative SteeringCommittee of 18 residents and business stakeholders met twice a month for seven months toensure this plan was based a set of core values and planning principles reflective of both thecommunity’s aims and concerns.

Table What are the 3 key questions this plan needs to address?

City Council and Planning Commission Senior City Staff

• What is the future direction of and vision for thiscommunity?

• What are our assets and market strengths, andhow do we protect and leverage them?

• How do we best market and sell our community

to new residents and companies?

• How do we adopt a consistent policy tied to thisvision and the city’s existing strengths, and thataddresses serious land use and housingchallenges?

• What should our priorities be? What criteriashould be used to set/rank these priorities?

• How does this plan get updated and keptrelevant going forward?

• Where do we start, and when?

• Where are we? How did we get here? What is theoverall situation?

• What are our relative goals for the near- and long-term, based on our defined situation?

• What “things” need to be fixed in the next 5 years,

10 years, or 15 years?

• How should we be using our limited resources?Where are we wasting resources that could bebetter used elsewhere?

• What are we (as government leaders) not doingthat we should be doing? What are some outsideideas that may work here?

• What are we (as government leaders) doing thatwe shouldn’t be doing?

• How could we (as leaders) work more in unison?Will usage of the plan enable various departmentsto better collaborate?

• What more can be done to attract young,educated individuals and families to the city?

• What recreation programs or opportunities doresidents want to see?

• What is the best way to consolidate neighborhoodsinto more cohesive areas?




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Planning PrinciplesGuiding planning principles appropriate to market and demographic reality provide the basicstructure for this plan. The city’s physical form must be sized to its financial and civic capacity.Interventions aimed at revitalizing Canton must be massive focused and not anemic anddiffused – as has been the case. The chief aims of all efforts in the coming years must be for

Canton to become economically and civically strong, able to compete for a fair share of theregion’s thriving businesses and working and middle class households. It can achieve theseaims if it sizes its budget to its population and socio-economic profile, focuses scarce dollars,works to be able to compete against other cities for market share, and becomes moreeconomically diverse.

Right-sizedThe City has already reduced the level of services it provides to a bare minimum. While slightadditional efficiencies can always be found, efficiencies alone are not going to be enough tomake Canton a more desirable place to live and work.

What is needed beyond greater efficiency is for the city to actually reduce the amount that it

maintains – reduce the linear miles of maintained streets or annually-repaired water and sewerlines; reduce the acreage of parks for which it is responsible; reduce the number of seriouslydistressed properties that are inefficiently served by utilities, foster increased crime, andburden emergency services. Until such balance is achieved, the city will remain fiscally weak.

A critical test to be applied to each land use and development decision going forward iswhether or not it will likely result in moving Canton more towards or away from being right-sized. All else being equal, only those proposals likely to help Canton rebalance excesssupply should be approved.

FocusedAs Canton’s experience over the last several decades has shown, our challenges are deep

enough, and widespread enough, that merely spreading available revenue lightly evenly overthe extent of the city has not kept up with the pace of deterioration. This has been and remainsthe case whether the issue is roads (which deteriorate faster than we have been willing torepair with our own money), or distressed housing (which infects surrounding property fasterthan we have been willing to strategically demolish).

When faced with this reality, and limited resources, the right strategy is to focus resources bothgeographically and also where they are likely to have the biggest impact (to positively affectthe most people and to stimulate the largest private market response Such impacts areessential to keep key areas healthy and stabilized, and leverage the capacity to next improvethe areas around them, gradually expanding outward until the whole city is functioning again inhealthy ways.

A critical test to be applied to each land use and development decision going forward iswhether or not it will likely result in a continuation of focused energy in targeted geographies soas to achieve a concentration of development activity. All else being equal, until the city’ssupply and demand are in sustainable balance, only those proposals that maintain geographicfocus should become high priority endeavors.




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CompetitiveLike all cities, Canton exists within a region of overlapping housing markets and trade areas.Employers in and outside the city have employees living everywhere from Canton to Jackson.But the trend has been for economically stronger businesses and households to increasinglysettle outside of Canton, the result of which has been to soften prices in the city, and which inturn continues to render Canton fiscally vulnerable. This trend must cease, and for it to bereversed – for Canton to rebound – it has to make increased sense to businesses andhouseholds alike to choose Canton. This is a chief basis of fiscal sustainability. Anotherindispensable ingredient for long term success is self-reliance. For Canton to succeed, notonly must resources be focused and the city sized to capacity, the resources used to stabilizeand then revitalize Canton must come from within. Every increment of reliance on outside(state or federal) dollars to reposition Canton is a step away from the importance of Cantonresidents and business stakeholders themselves taking responsibility for Canton’s future.Being competitive is only in part about market share and fiscal stability; it is also about selfreliance and demonstrated willingness to dig deep and pay its own way. Such a willingness isone of the most profound signals that can be sent to the wider market, without which themarket would conclude that its valuable time and money might be better spent elsewhere.

A critical test to be applied to each land use and development decision going forward iswhether or not it will likely result in Canton becoming more competitive within the region. Theburden should be on a proposal to demonstrate how it makes the city’s market positionstronger. All else being equal, only those proposals that clearly promise to strengthen the Cityin relation to the region should receive public resources.

DiverseDiversifying Canton means retaining Canton’s existing large employers, but also significantlyincreasing the number of small businesses. The era of a few large employers is over. It is timefor Canton to be the home of many small and medium size businesses to compliment a fewernumber of large companies. This will require that Canton invest in growing existing and

creating newly attractive settings, livable nearby neighborhoods for their employees, and atrained pool of workers. Diversity also means that Canton be the home of choice to workingand middle class families, who have increasingly chosen the suburbs over the city. It meansthat Canton needs to invest in making sure – through parks and other amenities, though avibrant downtown, through healthy neighborhoods, and eventually through strong schools – itcan compete for young families, working and professional. It means that Canton, though veryaffordable today in terms of housing cost, must remain affordable to low and moderatehouseholds.And diversity means absolute adherence by the City of Canton and all of itspartners to Fair Housing. The Fair Housing Act requires HUD and the City of Canton as aprogram recipients to promote fair housing and equal opportunity to ensure that all peoplehave the right to fair housing regardless of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex,disability or familial status. New rules mean that HUD will provide Canton with clear guidelines

and data -- including searchable geo-spatial maps that incorporate data sets about income,race, disability status and other measures -- they can be used to reach these goals. New rulesclarify and simplify existing fair housing obligations and create a streamlined process forevaluating fair housing. This plan has been designed to fully embrace the spirit and letter ofthe Fair Housing Act.A critical test to be applied to each land use and development decision going forward iswhether or not it will likely result in Canton becoming diverse. All else being equal, only thoseproposals that clearly aim to achieve an diverse outcome should receive public resources.




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Guiding ValuesRepositioning Canton will be hard. It will require difficult decision and tough trade-offs. It willnot be possible to treat every interest or neighborhood equally at the same time. There is nothave enough money to do that. And for success, some actions must come before others.Canton will need to establish priorities. However, over time, in order to benefit all of Canton, we

will be guided by the following fundamental values:

! SmartIn the end, our decisions must result in a strengthened Canton economy. If we do notstrengthen our economy, we will continue to decline, which will not benefit anyone.Therefore we must measure success first by the increase to our revenue, our reputation,and therefore our ability to compete for scarce financial and human capital in the region

! FairAt the same time, our decisions have to reflect a commitment to all citizens of Canton ingenuine, relevant, and meaningful ways. We may not be able to be equal, but we must befair. Just as investment and tradeoff decisions have to be focused on fiscal outcomes, so

too much they always take into context social equity

! BalancedNot every decision will equally achieve both values of smart and fair; but over the long haul,our “portfolio” (the sum of our decisions) needs to be balanced, and we will work toachieve it. There will be times, especially on the front end of implementation, when what isgood for the whole of the city and what is fiscally prudent, will not appear equitable. Andthere will be times when spending will not have a fiscal upside for the city as a whole, butwhich evidences our community’s commitment to balance.

Leadership

To achieve the a successful turnaround while incorporating our values and planning principles,leadership will be required. From those in Canton with formal authority – elected andappointed officials – those with informal authority – residents and business stakeholders –leadership will be required to mobilize the community to adapt.

Canton must adapt from a city dependent on a few large employers to an independentcommunity in partnership with many small and medium sized businesses.

Canton must adapt from a city that prioritizes using a “worst first” criteria for the deployment ofscarce resources to a “catch up and keep up” approach that protects critical assets. Cantonmust adapt from a city where “need” dominates prioritization debate or one where the chieffocus is on stimulating demand.

Canton must adapt from an unhealthy reliance on private philanthropy and government grantsto fill the void left by deindustrialization and globalization to self-financed recovery grounded insweat equity and sacrifice.

Such adaptation will be hard. So leadership provided by those with both formal and informalauthority will be essential. Fortunately, the Canton community is blessed with many who arewilling and able to exercise such leadership.




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ImplementationImplementation will hinge on several points. There must be the adoption and utilization ofconstructive decision-making frameworks. Deployment of scare resources must berationalized based on objective data and sound judgment. There must be a commitment atevery level to investment that is asset oriented and focused. Public and private spending have

to be aligned. The long term and the public realm must constitute the backbone of all energy.

How to use “Repositioning Canton”• If you have only 5 minutes, read the Letter to the Citizens of Canton• If you want to understand the specifics of the plan, read The Repositioning Strategy• If you want to know more details about how we got here, and current conditions, read

Understanding Canton (related document)• If you want to know more about conditions and directions for individual topic areas (roads,

parks, residential areas, commercial areas, business, etc.) read Applying the Principlesand Strategies to Departments (related document)

• If you want to know more about specific implementation actions and projects, readApplying the Principles and Strategies to Key Asset Areas (related document)

•To look at background information, maps, data, and other material, see the Appendices

How to truly use the plan and, when necessary, make changes.Since a comprehensive plan neither grants nor takes away any vested rights, any authority itcan have will result from the eventual co-adoption of a consistency policy requiring that landuse related decisions by the City be consistent with the plan, and the parallel adoption of adevelopment (or zoning) code that regulates form.

Once passed, a good comprehensive plan should be able to guide decision making withoutconstraining the community as market and other conditions change – sometimes unexpectedly.

So there needs to be room for make both major and minor amendments when appropriate.

Adopting a Consistency PolicyThe “consistency” policy states simply: “All land use-related decisions by the City will beconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan.”

Being consistent with the Comprehensive Plan does NOT mean that the plan is “carved instone” and cannot be changed. In fact, the opposite is true. If the plan does not reflect currentconditions, current priorities, or current goals, it will cease to be useful and will gradually beignored. Therefore, the plan should be updated or amended as often as necessary to makesure it reflects current values, priorities, and conditions.

Therefore, being “consistent” with the Comprehensive Plan means following two simple rules:

1. If the proposed action is NOT consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, Canton decision-makers will either a) deny the proposal, or b) modify the comprehensive plan so that theproposed action IS consistent.

2. In updating the comprehensive plan, the level of consideration (the amount of analysis andpublic involvement) will be consistent with the significance of the issues involved.




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Making Major and Minor AmendmentsThis Comprehensive Plan could be changed through two kinds of amendments:The first, minor amendments, are changes that merely clarify, refine, or correct elements of theplan without modifying the underlying intent of the plan. These kinds of changes can be madeadministratively by the a city’s planning director, with advance notification of the PlanningCommission and City Council. Minor amendments may be called up by the PlanningCommission or City Council if they are considered not to be minor in nature.

The second, major amendments, are significant changes to the policies, maps, priorities orgoals and objectives of the Comprehensive Plan. Major amendments should be approved bythe Planning Commission and City Council. Public outreach for major amendments should becommensurate with the impact of the change. For example, if it affects a neighborhood,neighborhood outreach is appropriate. If the change affects multiple neighborhoods, or thewhole city, broader outreach is warranted.

Implementing Formal Annual ReviewsTo further assure the currency, and relevance of the Comprehensive Plan

1. The Planning Department should conduct an annual review of the Comprehensive Plan,and report to the City Council each year on the implementation status of plan-basedactions. As part of this review, city staff and members of the planning department should ,remove actions that have been completed or are no longer relevant, and add and/orprioritize actions for the upcoming year (including any minor or major amendments).

2. The City should conduct a formal review and update of the Comprehensive Plan everyseven years.




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The Framework

OverviewCanton’s population is nearly 40% smaller today than it was at the city’s peak, in 1950. Today’sroughly 73,000 residents face significant challenges. Most simply, and most pressing, Canton’s

current 73,000 residents must cover the cost of managing and maintaining the componentparts of a city built to accommodate almost twice as many residents. With scarce tax dollars (afunction of there being fewer tax payers), Canton’s current 73,000 residents must do the workof managing and maintaining in a way that - optimally - repositions the city for future success.This is a challenge many cities in America today are facing, yet there are few roadmaps thatCanton can follow.

To reposition Canton successfully, the city must find a way to make do with less.

Canton can either pave all roads less, or pave fewer roads to high quality standards. Take careof all parks less, or take care of fewer parks in a way that is optimal. Demolish some (but notall) seriously distressed properties in neighborhoods throughout the city or target demolitions

to fully remove abandoned buildings from a few areas.

How can local officials and neighborhood residents and stakeholders decide how toaccomplish these and other objectives in ways that are efficient from a resource useperspective, create a return on those dollars when possible, put the city on a firm footingfinancially speaking, and to the extent possible, do so without being abjectly unfair.




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This plan attempts to act as a guide for facing exactly this challenge.

It does so by structuring robust and unprecedented but necessary levels of reinvestment by the city and a host of private sector partners.

It does so through the reliance on a new system of governance. In the proposed systemneeded to implement this plan, a Comprehensive Plan Implementation Fund will be created,and administrated jointly by representatives of the community (directly by residents),representatives of the Canton City Council, and representatives from the private sector.

• One third of this reinvestment effort is to be governed by a newly created or recharteredexisting public-private corporation (Enterprise Fund Redevelopment Corporation),designed to administer the plan and undertake real estate development using publicresources directed to plan implementation by the City Council. Its resources would comefrom the Implementation Fund on an annual basis following submittal and approval of anannual work plan for the coming year and review of the previous year(s) work. TheCorporation would be chartered to focus almost exclusively on market-rate and market-oriented work around key city assets as detailed in this plan.


Canton O!ce ofPlanning Modeled

AfterCity of Pittsburgh, PA

Acquisition/DemolitionInfrastructure

($75M)

Market RateDevelopment

($125M)

HealthyNeighborhoods Work

($50M)

Comprehensive PlanImplementation Fund

($250M/10 yr)

Community BasedOrganization Modeled

After YNDC -Youngstown, OH

Enterprise FundRedev Corp

(CCIC rev) Modeled After EBDI - Baltimore

PublicFunds

($125M/10 yr)

PrivateFunds

($125M/10 yr)

ReallocationCIP and CDBG

(~$30M/10 yr)

NewTaxes

(~$70M/10 yr)

MunicipalBond

(~$25M/10 yr)

CantonCorporations

($125M/10 yr)


($250M/10 yr)



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• One third of the effort is to be managed by a new municipal planning office designed tocoordinate planning and zoning, housing and community development, comprehensiveplan implementation, and regulatory matters associated with land use and development.This new planning office would be modeled on the City of Pittsburgh. It would be the officethat would review development proposals and make expert recommendations to the City’sPlanning Commission and City Council.

• One third of the effort is to be managed by a new or modified existing nonprofit corporation,chartered to build resident leadership capacity through healthy neighborhood revitalizationwork in the community. With 11,000 tax delinquent properties scattered throughout Canton,along with numerous challenges at the neighborhood level, coordination of neighborhoodimprovement, home ownership development, affordable housing, and communityreinvestment will be overseen by this corporation.

And, it does so by being a plan that as based on real numbers.

Because the hole that Canton is in would require about a $460M to address market weakness

completely on every block so that all of the city’s real estate functions in market healthy ways,this is a necessarily bold plan that may cost upwards of $250M over the next ten years.

$250M is not enough to avoid making hard choices, but is enough to trigger market recovery.Market conditions and fiscal reality dictate that nothing but a bold plan will be capable ofreversing the decades-long trajectory of the City of Canton.

It will require new revenue, the reorganization and re-prioritization of existing municipal dollars,significant private sector investment, unprecedented cooperation, the creation of new entitiesauthorized to implement the plan, the adoption of new regulations, and a greater commitmentto the good of the city overall than parochial interests.


Reposition Canton to ThriveFinancially and Civically

Build a High Capacity toPrioritize Spending

Protect theVital Assets RepositionFallow Sites IncreaseResidential Q/L

Choose UsingGuidelinesProvided

Choose UsingGuidelinesProvided

Followthe

Plan

$125M/10 yr $75M/10 yr $50M/10 yr



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Assets and LiabilitiesCanton has many large scale assets that are attractive to businesses as well as residents.Major assets include stadium Park, a growing network of regional trails, major employers(Aultman and Mercy Hospitals, Timken Steel, Diebold, Kenan Advantage, and others), the ProFootball Hall of Fame, and the Downtown (hotels, offices, restaurants, brewery, Market Square,arts district, and events)

Canton also has many smaller scale assets that play an important part in neighborhood qualityof life. These include a well managed system of schools, many of which have been recentlyconstructed or renovated, neighborhood and community parks, sports complexes, churchesand synagogues, small and intermediate commercial centers, and Colleges and vocationalschools.

In addition, Canton has significant community-based capacity. Public officials and city staffwho have adroitly steered Canton through the worst economic period in American historyexcept for the Great Depression, roughly 1,500 industrial small businesses and a knowledgebase of how to “make” things, a core of young entrepreneurs committed to Canton, and

Philanthropic and charitable institutions deeply connected to the community

Still, Canton faces some significant hurdles that impact the city’s future, over which Canton haslittle to no direct control. The region itself isn’t growing – people are moving from cities tosuburbs but the total isn’t increasing; and Ohio’s tax policies generally favor suburban growthin Townships and Counties over the practice of municipal frugality in her cities.

However, Canton also has many liabilities over which it DOES have control, and these include:

• A significantly smaller population, particularly a reduced middle-income population. Thisresults in:

• Reduced demand for real estate

• Reduced levels of reinvestment in private property• Reduced per-capita revenue from income taxes• Reduced demand for duality retail• Increased demand for services (social and safety)• Increased rental tenancy• Increased absentee ownership

These liabilities interact with and reinforce one another, serving to increase their negativeeffects on the City of Canton.

As a result, the city’s strengths are compromised. Downtown cannot compete, much less

anchor a Canton comeback so long as it is surrounded by blight and demand for commercialreal estate is not intentionally channeled into downtown. The city’s 1,500 small businesses arestarved for networks and capital and marketing and promotions. They are not becoming whatthey could in terms of growth, job creation, and wealth creation. Every day this remains thestatus quo, the city’s entrepreneurs will look increasingly towards suburban county, Akron, andother markets to find future prosperity. Our hospitals compete for employees like every otherbusiness. Attracting the best doctors has become a task made tougher each year that thedowntown fails to fully recover and that the city’s neighborhoods continue to decline.Residential life in Canton – despite rich architecture and walkable neighborhoods supported




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by a potentially great park system – is undermined by a lack of economic diversity, a downtownwithout a vibrant resident component, and scant reason to confidently invest in upgradingone’s home.

Much will be required—of the city government, of city residents, of local corporations, andeven of the region – if these troublesome cycles are to be reversed. When 75 percent of theprofessional employees of the city’s largest corporations no longer choose to live in our city, wehave a problem that is serious, and that requires a serious plan.

Specifically, much more will be required of local residents and local businesses, non-profits,and philanthropic organizations, if this is to change, as it is highly unlikely that substantial newrevenue is going to materialize from outside the community (from either the federal governmentor state government).




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Repositioning Strategy

IntroductionTo successfully make the most of scarce resources, this plan organizes the City of Canton intothree areas that every citizen needs to understand in terms of location (where), role (how it

affects the city and how the community will need to influence it), actions (what needs to occur),and implications (how the areas interconnect).

The first – or Targeted Core Investment Areas – contains those blocks around key identifiedassets absolutely crucial to the city’s long term health. This plan identifies those assets – orvital organs, designates a targeted geography around them that requires massivereinvestment, and prescribes a set of general steps that must be taken by the community toachieve a successful outcome.

A successful outcome in these areas is eventual market vibrancy achieved once supply anddemand have come into balance following intensive investments in infrastructure, right-sizing,resident leadership, and real estate. The selection of these assets, the determination of thetargeted geography, and the steps this plan recommends be taken were all based on theguiding principles of sound planning in weak markets, and the core values of the Cantoncommunity. These areas constitute about 3.5 percent of the city’s land area.





($75M)


($125M)


($50M)


($250M/10 yr)







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It is envisioned that the core of the work undertaken to strengthen the city’s chief assets will beundertaken by the new Enterprise Fund Redevelopment Corporation.

The work entails concentrated acquisition and improvement of property around key assets,coordination of major infrastructure investments, and the development of new market rate andaffordable housing as well as new mixed-used development as the market stabilizes.The second contains those sections of the city identified as being in the flood plain and noteasily conducive to prolonged residential settlement or new development of any kind givenenvironmental and financial considerations, and also areas that require adaptive repurposingto natural corridors, urban agriculture, or cleaned and greened lots. This plan identifies theseareas and prescribes a set of general steps that must be taken by the community to achieve asuccessful outcome.

A successful outcome in these areas is control, perceived and real, where instead of settlementin the flood plain that will never have resale value, and instead of large tracts of underutilizedindustrial parcels, and thousands of smaller blighted parcels, new trails, new green spaces,and the potential for interim uses like nature preserves may be possible. The selection of these

areas – which constitute about 21% of the city’s last area - was based on the guiding principlesof sound planning in weak markets, and the core values of the Canton community.

It is envisioned that the core of the work undertaken to stabilize these parts of Canton will beshared by the city’s new Office of Planning working hand in hand with the new resident-ledcommunity based organization. The work entails conversion of tax delinquent and troubledproperty to productive use; sometimes as cleaned lots deeded to adjoining owners, sometimes





($75M)


($125M)

HealthyNeighborhood

($50M)


($250M/10 yr)

Community BOrganization M

After YNDYoungstown





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as natural areas, and always in working partnership with the community who it is envisionedwill prioritize which parcels to address in which order.

The third area of focus – the city’s residential neighborhoods – contains those residential partsof the city not in the core and not in the flood plain, and generally disincludes conversion areasof fallow property (tax delinquent, abandoned, blighted). These are the lifeblood sections ofCanton – the majority of the city’s residential neighborhoods where families are raised, yardsare mowed, groceries are bought, little league is played, and children attend school.

While this plan identifies (by subtraction) these sections, and while these sections constituteroughly 76% of the city’s land area, the job of deciding which specific neighborhoods toinvest in has been left to the community because it is a task best done by residentsthemselves. What is designated in this plan is a set of guiding principles (right-sized,focused, competitive, diverse) and core values (smart and fair and balanced) that thecommunity itself should apply in the course of undertaking the hard work of prioritizing. Thereare 26 neighborhoods in the city. The targeted core investment areas constitute parts of fiveneighborhoods plus downtown and the new Hall of Fame Village. For the remaining residentialneighborhoods in the city not in the flood plain, prioritization will require the community todetermine how to make the most with limited resources.

It is envisioned that the core of the work undertaken to strengthen the city’s residentialneighborhoods will be a combination of strategic demolition, vacant parcel control andbeautification, upgrades to owner occupied homes, enhanced code compliance efforts,resident leadership development, and community building all under the rubric of the Healthy





($75M)


($125M)


($50M)


($250M/10 yr)







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Neighborhoods model pioneered in Baltimore. These efforts will be overseen by the newresident-led community based organization which will have to prioritize its activities.

Brief Description of ImplementationThe essence of the work confronting Canton is to size the city’s real estate to the financialcapacity of the households and businesses that call Canton home, and do so in ways thatreposition the city to compete in the region.

1. To transform the core will require disciplined targeting of public and private resources overa sustained period into vibrant, mixed-use areas, and then connecting them in ways thatreinforce downtown.

2. To transform the flood plain and the thousands of vacant, fallow, or tax delinquentproperties will require creative repurposing of some land into urban agricultural use, someparcels into cleaned and greened condition, and others into natural corridors that candouble as trails and other amenities.

3. To transform Canton’s neighborhoods not in the core – more than 20 – will require thecommunity to come together to decide which neighborhoods to focus on first and which toget to later. This is a complex, expensive, and unprecedented undertaking. It will require amassive infusion of public and private resources. It will require the creation of new planimplementation entities – one public ( a new, fully staffed city planning office), one private-private ( a new, fully staffed redevelopment corporation), and one non profit (a new or re-chartered existing community development corporation)

ActionsThe following section illustrates recommended ways to translate the principles and priorities ofthe plan into specific actions to be funded and taken. The first section describes the five Core

Targeted Investment Areas. The second section describes the areas needed conversion(sometimes referred to as repurposing). The third section discussed how to identify and applythe principles to the city’s many residential Neighborhood Areas.




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1. Core Targeted Investment AreasLead is Enterprise Fund Redevelopment Corporation

Concept plans have been developed for each of the five core targeted investment areas.These concept plans are intended to give on-the-ground examples of how to apply theRepositioning Canton principles to specific sub-areas. It is expected that these concept planswill be revised and refined by city staff, working with a new redevelopment corporation, andimplemented according to annual prioritization and funding availability.

The core areas are adjacent to each other andintended therefore to reinforce each other. Theysurround and help strengthen Canton’sindispensable Downtown, and they are allconnected together by transportation corridors.In addition, each is important for its own uniquereasons, such as their importance to majoremployers, and their capacity to be home to

working households. They are anchored bycritical community institutions, and alwayscontain important gateways to Canton that serveas high impact first impressions.

Timken Steel AreaThe guts of Canton’s manufacturing past arebeing transformed in real time at Timken Steel,and exemplified by the design, financingdevelopment, procurement, installation, andoperation of the company’s new Jumbo BloomVertical Caster. Such creativity and risk taking

exemplifies and models the essential recoverypath for the City of Canton: reinvestment andchoices. For Timken Steel to succeed in

recruiting world class talent, it will need the City of Canton to make investments in infrastructureon par with its investments in equipment and training. World class talent requires a rebuilt andthriving downtown, good schools, well maintained parks and amenities, a vibrant arts andcultural life, thriving retail and civic life, and excellent housing options both downtown and intraditional neighborhood settings. These elements of a revitalized and repositioned Canton areessential for Timken Steel to remain in, be profitable, and thrive in Canton.

Aultman Hospital Area NeighborhoodThe Aultman Hospital neighborhood is one of the most important area in Canton, absolutelyvital to the long term health of the city given the Hospital’s powerful economic presence. Theneighborhood is a mixed-use area of about 300 acres crossed by a main commercial corridor(SW Tuscarawa), and anchored by Aultman Hospital. Decades ago the hospital wassurrounded by single family homes (where many employees lived). Over time, as theneighborhood began to decline, workers moved to more remote (commuting) locations, theywere replaced by less-financially-strong households and renters, maintenance of homes andproperties began to decline, and the hospital began to acquire declining blocks and convertthem to parking lots as a defensive measure designed to protect the hospital. Neighboring




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owners, meanwhile, often interpreted such actions with concern, concluding that Hospital-driven real estate activities were a threat as opposed to a reaction. Today the hospital iseffectively “walled off” from the neighborhood by undistinguished parking lots. If the trendcontinues, Canton runs the risk of further neighborhood decline, making the area less desirablefor employees and hospital clients. Hospitals in many other communities, faced with similarproblems have relocated to more suburban locations. For Aultman to do so would not onlyremove strong households from the Canton community, but would also dramatically reduceincome tax revenues to the city.

How to revitalize the Aultman neighborhood?

The vision for the Aultman neighborhood is to “re-weave” the hospital back into the surroundingblocks, making the hospital part of the neighborhood rather than separate from it, and makingthe neighborhood an even more desirable place to live. The key target market - though not theonly one - is hospital workers.

Gradually transitioning and eventually restoring the neighborhood around the hospital will be

done by converting portions of parking lots back to a range of residential and compatible officeand commercial uses.

Mostly residential, it is envisioned to have multifamily dwellings nearer the hospital and singlefamily detached homes further away, resulting in a range of densities from moderate (10-20 du/ acre) to higher (20-30 du/acre) over time.

The existing pattern of neighborhood-serving retail (local restaurants, medical office, shops)will be permitted at all major corners so that the neighborhood becomes a complex mix of usestying the neighborhood together with a strong framework of street trees, wide sidewalks, andboulevards to make walking appealing and safe. Creating several new neighborhood parks towithin easy walking distance of most residents

Pro Football Hall of Fame Village AreaThe HOF is currently a relatively small (but hugely important) attraction that gives Cantonworldwide recognition (as the birthplace of professional football). It also brings approximately200,000 visitors/year to the Canton area.

The HOF currently occupies a roughly 30 acre site near the intersection of Fulton Drive andI-77. At the time of this document, plans are being formulated by the Hall of Fame Board todramatically expand the scope and quality of the attractions at the HOF “village,” including:

• Expanded HOF building• Expanded stadium field for HOF-related events

• A football-oriented theme park• A mixed use “Village” of hotels, restaurants, offices, medical research facilities• Venues for other sports, including soccer fields and other spaces.

The area envisioned for the expanded Hall of Fame extends from I-77 west to Broad Avenue,from Fulton Drive south to 13th Street (which becomes 12th Street east of I-77). The expandedarea is currently composed of primarily residential uses, as well churches, an elementaryschool, and the McKinley High School complex: the school, natatorium, performance center,




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and football stadium.

When completed, the entire area will be a significant tourist destination with significant officeworkers and restaurant activity. To effectively take advantage of the HOF expansion will requirethe following: A maximum number of the HOF jobs (operations, services, and construction) aredirected to Canton residents and businesses. This can be achieved by a commitment topreferential hiring of Canton residents, sourcing supplies and services to Canton businesses,locating spin-off businesses in Canton, training programs to allow Canton residents to upgradeand qualify for jobs.

A strong link between the HOF and other areas of Canton (especially thedowntown). This can be achieved by creating strong “must see” destinations in the downtownto draw HOF visitors. This can include specific HOF-related places (Market Square, sculptures,a historic stadium recreation, etc.) as well as a commitment to hold HOF-related events in thedowntown (parade and other investiture ceremonies). It will be important to make sure thatexisting anchor tenants in the DT (restaurants, retailers) are not outcompeted and forced toclose or relocate.

Improving the transportation connections to the DT along Fulton Road and 13th /12th Streets willbe important. New paving, street trees, sidewalks, buried or relocated overhead power lines.Transit connections (jitney, trolley, train) need to be considered.

Mercy Area NeighborhoodThe Mercy neighborhood is the keystone to the recovery of Canton, for it connects stable butat-risk residential areas along Fulton and Monument both with one of the city’s major anchoringinstitutions – Mercy Hospital - and with the distressed areas closer to downtown in the Shorbpart of the city. The Mercy neighborhood includes areas on both sides of Fulton Road,extending from Monument Road east to approximately Oxford Avenue, and from approximately12th Street north to 17th Street.

The neighborhood is predominantly a single family residential neighborhood with a mix ofhousing stocks including 1910-1930 wood-framed “four squares,” some cottages andbungalows of wood and brick, and several larger brick homes of greater stature. Along FultonRoad are also a number of apartment buildings as well as several commercial clusters,including Canton’s justifiably famous Taggart’s ice cream parlor.

West of Fulton Road the topography drops noticeably down to Monument Park/Road. Anumber of homes front directly on the park.The Mercy neighborhood includes several “brick streets” that are remnants of one of Canton’shistorically rich traditions. The old Lehman High School building and field is vacant andoccupies a central location in the neighborhood. There are also a number of redundant alleys

in various sectors of the neighborhood.

The largest concentration of vacant, delinquent and distressed housing occurs in the southernand southeastern quadrant of the neighborhood. The Fulton-12th Street intersection is animportant decision point with the potential to leverage both a new Hall of Fame Village byfacilitating a link to downtown, and Mercy as a hub of pioneering medical services and longstanding community partnership. The entire 12th Street corridor today under-performscommercially to a significant degree, despite significant public upgrades. The essence of




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needed commercial revitalization along 12th Street – and throughout Canton – is, in point offact, not contained in the physical infrastructure. Infrastructure is only a down payment onfuture vitality. Actually becoming a high performing commercial corridor will require that theadjoining neighborhoods become high performing places where residents are confidentenough to invest in their homes.

The vision for the Fulton corridor is a grand boulevard that links the Hall of Fame to theDowntown, surrounded by a range of healthy homes – from modest to stately - and anchoredby commercial “centers” at 12th-Fulton, Taggarts (14th Street), 16th-Fulton, and the commercialcenter at Fulton-21st-24th.

The primary market for the Mercy neighborhood is hospital workers and young families wantingto live near downtown and near Monument and other parks and emergent retail amenities.

The strategies for revitalizing the Mercy neighborhood include:• Streetscape improvements to Fulton Road and 12th Street (some of which are already in the

planning stages).

• Major streetscape improvements to the 12th

-Fulton Road intersection to help it function moreeffectively as a walk-to commercial center

• Acquisition, assembly and redevelopment of distressed, vacant and delinquent propertiesin adjacent to the 12th-Oxford intersection.

• Redevelopment of the Lehman High site, and conversion of field to a neighborhood-servingpark.

• Rezoning and incentivizing small-scale commercial additions to extend and reposition theintersection now anchored by Taggart’s into a neighborhood commercial “center.”

• Selective refurbishing and infill redevelopment along Fulton Road. Densities along Fultoncould be as high as 30 units/acre, but the boulevard should also retain grand single familyhomes.

• Preservation of the “brick streets,” and extension of new, short brick streets to the Taggart’s

center.

The Shorb Corridor AreaThe Shorb area is directly north of the Downtown. It is transected by three important arterials:Fulton Road, Shorb Avenue, and McKinley Avenue on the east. It extends from approximately6th Street to 12th Street.

The Shorb neighborhood has a number of important community institutions. In the southeastquadrant are found: the Basilica of St. Paul, Summit Elementary School, King Park, the IronWorkers Union hall. In the north/northwest quadrant are found: the Arts Academy as Summit,and the Fulton/12th Street commercial corridor. Fulton Road connects the Hall of Fame to theDowntown, and 12th Street is an important connection from the south end of the Hall of Fame

area to Mahoning Road.

However, by far the most noteworthy aspect of the Shorb area today is negative. Distressedhousing. Crime. Disorder. Abandonment. The Shorb Avenue has one of the highestconcentrations of vacant, tax delinquent, and distressed housing in the city, and it sits justnorth of the downtown, its significant blight exerting a powerfully negative influence on theentire area. Left as is, the market will not be able to conclude that areas around it are safe for




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reinvestment, and this includes Canton’s downtown, the single most important asset in thecity’s book.

Within Shorb are also a number of redundant alleys that can be decommissioned The easternboundary of the neighborhood is created by the large expanses of (mostly vacant) parking lotsbroken up by scattered office buildings.

The strategies for the Shorb neighborhood include:• Removing the blighted conditions on Shorb Avenue. This will be done by acquiring the

distressed, vacant and delinquent properties, clearing them, and then installing temporarylandscaping and holding the consolidated properties for eventual redevelopment. Theinterim condition will be 7-8 blocks of “parkway” character.

• In the SE quadrant, working west and north from 6th-High Streets, acquire, assemble, andredevelop block-sections (both sides of the street wherever possible) into a variety ofdensity types: town homes, small apartments, and single family homes (on larger lots).

• A similar strategy is applied working south and eastward from the 12th-Fulton intersection,focusing on redeveloping/rehabilitating key homes along Fulton Road as well as the blocks

faces on streets perpendicular to Fulton Road.• A new pocket park west of Fulton Road would provide walk-to recreation (Monument Park is

actually cut off by the railroad tracks and creek), as well as a focal point for thisneighborhood.

• Decommissioning the redundant alleys in the northern tier of the neighborhood will helpreduce the city’s road maintenance costs.

Downtown Canton Roughly 9,400 people work in downtown Canton, making it almost twice as large, inemployment, as the city’s largest employer (Aultman Health Foundation). If downtown Canton –during daytime working hours – were an independent city, it would be larger than 30 percent ofOhio’s communities. These workers are a captive market for downtown businesses,

representing at least $48 million in annual retail market demand. It has a strong core of historiccommercial buildings offering four great benefits:

2. Concentration and contiguity: Together, downtown Canton’s buildings create a dense, easy-to-navigate district that promotes walkability, multiple uses, and business clustering andthat facilitates business and entrepreneurial collaboration.

3. Unique visual identity: Together, downtown Canton’s historic buildings

canton draft july 30.pages

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